Tòumíng jumped up from Ben's desk, nearly knocking over a monitor in his panic. "IMSORRYGOBACKTOYOURLOVEMAKING NOWBYEEE!"
He ran for the door and slammed it shut behind him.
Inside, Ben and his companion were momentarily stunned by the abrupt exit. Then Ben turned back to his boyfriend with a predatory grin. "You heard him."
He pounced, pinning the guy back against the bed, and they resumed their interrupted makeout session with renewed enthusiasm.
Tòumíng sprinted up the stairs to the third floor—no, wait, Hǔtān was on the second floor in the medical wing—he corrected course, nearly tripping over his own feet as he changed direction mid-stride.
He burst through Hǔtān's door without knocking, his words tumbling out in a panicked stream.
"OKSOLIKETHISSALESGUYIKNOW JUSTGOTSHOTANDKIDNAPPEDAND—" He gasped for breath. "—DEEP BREATH—IDONTKNOWWHATTODODOYOUHAVEADATABASEOFSTUFFLIKETHAT?"
Hǔtān was sitting up in bed, most of his bandages still in place, looking significantly better than he had yesterday but still very much recovering from near-death. His single visible eye blinked in confusion.
"What? Slow down. Repeat that."
Tòumíng forced himself to breathe and explained properly this time. The closed pawn shop. The blood. The security footage showing three masked men. The mention of ice jade. The gunshot. Xuān Láng being dragged away.
Hǔtān's expression grew serious as he listened, his tactical mind clearly processing the information despite his physical condition.
"Men in black..." he said slowly, his voice thoughtful. "Professional operation. Detailed family information. Coordinated kidnapping focused on gemstone expertise..."
He paused, his eye narrowing as memory connected dots.
"Shit."
"What? What shit?"
"It's the Black Hawk." Hǔtān shifted in bed, wincing as his burned skin pulled against the bandages. "They're a Mongolian organization. Hitmen, trafficking, bounty hunting—they do it all. They specialize in high-value target acquisition. Their trademark is the information gathering. They don't just know your name and address. They know everything. Your family members' names, ages, schools, jobs, daily routines. Medical records. Financial history. Every secret, every vulnerability. Down to the mole on your left ass cheek."
Tòumíng's face went pale. "Does that mean I have to go to Mongolia?! To find Xuān Láng?!"
Before Hǔtān could answer, Ghost Claw appeared in the doorway—apparently she'd been monitoring the conversation from the hallway or had her own surveillance system tracking activity in the medical wing.
"No," she said, her gas mask turning toward Tòumíng. "Black Hawk has operational bases scattered across Asia. They're not centralized in Mongolia anymore—haven't been for years. They've expanded. China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand. Anywhere there's money and demand for their particular skill set."
She walked into the room, leaning against the wall with her characteristic casual authority.
"In fact, they've helped the Gentlemen's Mining Club smuggle people across borders before. I've encountered their work. Very professional. Very expensive. Very effective." Her tone carried grudging respect. "But I doubt they only sent three people for a simple pawn shop owner. That's remote coordination. Which means..."
Hǔtān finished her thought. "Which means they're operating locally. Very close. Probably have a base or safe house somewhere in Longhua or the surrounding area."
Tòumíng's mind was racing. "They were asking about ice jade. Some kind of imperial Qing Dynasty piece. What—"
Hǔtān's blood ran cold. Even through the bandages, Tòumíng could see his entire body tense.
"The Ice Queen."
Tòumíng gasped. The Ice Queen. Xuě Bào. One of the three loan sharks his father—Min-woo—had borrowed from for safe passage from Korea to China.
One of the three people Tòumíng had been making monthly payments to for three years.
One of the three debts he'd inherited and never questioned.
"The Ice Queen was one of the people I owed debts to," Tòumíng said slowly, the connections forming in his mind. "But I've never actually met her. Or the other two—Ào Shǔ and Ào Wā. I just meet a guy named Razor at the boat rental shop in Guanlan Lake every month and give him the money for all three."
Hǔtān nodded, his expression grim. "Min-woo owed a debt to her specifically. Not for money. For safe passage. She has smuggling routes that run from Incheon in South Korea to various ports in China. Very expensive. Very reliable. In exchange for getting Min-woo and Ji-yeon out of Korea without alerting the Four Constellations, Min-woo agreed to pay hush money. Monthly payments to ensure she never revealed his location to anyone looking for him."
"And when he died, that debt transferred to me," Tòumíng finished.
"Exactly."
"But why would the Black Hawk be looking for ice jade? And why would that connect to the Ice Queen?"
Hǔtān shifted uncomfortably, his burned skin clearly protesting the movement. "The Ice Queen's real name is Xuě Bào. She earned her nickname not just from her cold personality, but from her signature possession. A piece of imperial ice jade from the Qing Dynasty—supposedly a gift from Empress Dowager Cixi herself to one of her favored concubines. It's been passed down through Xuě Bào's family for generations. Worth an absolute fortune. Museum-quality. Historically significant."
Ghost Claw added, "Ice jade of that quality and provenance would be worth millions. Tens of millions if authenticated properly. And if someone's hiring Black Hawk to track it down..."
"Then it's either been stolen, or they want to steal it," Hǔtān concluded.
Tòumíng felt his panic rising. "So Xuān Láng was kidnapped because they think he knows where it is? But he's just a pawn shop owner! How would he know about something like that?!"
"Gemstone expertise," Ghost Claw said. "If the Ice Queen wanted to sell it or have it appraised, she'd need someone who could handle that level of transaction discreetly. Someone with connections to high-end buyers. Someone who wouldn't ask questions."
"Xuān Láng," Tòumíng whispered. "She used him as her fence."
"Probably. Which means he either knows where she is, or knows where the jade is, or both. And Black Hawk will do whatever it takes to extract that information."
Hǔtān rubbed his bandaged head carefully, wincing. "The problem is Guanlan Lake. That entire area is a maze of gang routes, smuggling operations, drug trafficking networks. Finding one specific person—especially someone as careful as the Ice Queen—would be nearly impossible without inside information or—"
"Did someone say the word 'find'?"
All three of them turned toward the doorway.
Lucy stood there, leaning against the frame with her characteristic expression of mild annoyance, her purple hair catching the hallway light, her split tongue flicking out briefly as she spoke.
"Because finding people is literally my job. Skip tracing. It's what I do. And I'm very, very good at it."